Re: Star Wars: Episode VIII (Pre-release)
i'm sorry I brought it up.. I just thought it was interesting! I'll know better next time....anyway, back to the main thread!
It's not that. It's that a lot of people reacted to something excerpted from an entire interview as if it were the entire statement, and a deliberate and high-publicity one, at that. It wasn't. I think the problem is that the echo chamber of the internet has magnified it into being on par with Feig's "new Ghostbusters, and guess what -- they're all women!" cart-before-the-horse announcement. JJ wasn't saying there were specific plan afoot to introduce a blatantly gay character. He was not saying the next film was going to be all homosexual characters. He did not say some of the characters were (or were not) going to turn out to be gay. He was just saying that, as the new content is being written, nothing's off the table. A far cry from how it's being presented.
Yes, sexual orientation matters to Star Wars. If Leia hadn't been hetero, we wouldn't have had Kylo Ren. At the very least. It's impacted things on a local and galactic scale from the get-go: Luke wanting to go find this beautiful princess, Anakin creeping on Padmé, Padmé eventually reciprocating, Leia falling for Han... How many people have died, gotten hurt, or gotten captured in Star Wars because someone had the hots for someone of the opposite gender?
Going forward, Phasma might turn out to be gay, but I don't think it would matter much for her, either way, as she seems to be all about the job and no time for such things. Finn seems to have been friend-zoned by Rey, and stuff that was almost in TFA (and will likely show up in VII) has Rey showing interest in Poe, and vice versa. Beyond that... *shrug* ...well, we'll just have to see.
I would assume LFL official. Which means the RPF's own TK-409, Chris Bartlett. And the astromech droid is likely LFL's. If not, then probably the RPF's own R2D2 Guy (I think that's his handle), aka Mike Senna.
You are correct on
R2D2_GUY is Mike Senna -- but he isn't the only "R2-D2 Guy" who could have contributed. The head of the R2-D2/Astromech/Droid Builders' Club (who is named Guy) also lives in SoCal. LFL has many options to call on for the Oscars.
Moving on... Do we have anything new on who's
in Episode VIII? Or what new characters are going to be showing up? There have been a few rumors, and some casting calls/screen tests talked about, but I haven't actually seen anything settled, and since filming's underway...
--Jonah